Stand up if you’ve ever …

This present perfect game encourages students to talk about their life experiences and to reveal their more interesting stories.

You can use this handout as a warm up activity to give a more controlled practice.

The aim of this game is to be the only person standing up by sharing a life experience and inviting other students to stand if they’ve also had the same experience.

Demonstrate the game using some examples from your own life. For example:

Stand up if you’ve ever flown in a helicopter.

Stand up if you’ve ever been to Disneyland

Stand up if you’ve never eaten a hamburger

If you manage to be the only person standing for one of your examples, you would get a point.

Now ask students to think of three experiences from their own lives which they can use in the game. Students might need 10 to 15 minutes for this stage.

Write the name or initials of each student on the board in a line on the board.

The first student makes their first stand up if… statement and gets to their feet. If they are the only student standing they get a point. Mark the point on the board under their name and move on to the next student.

Go round the class two or three times and make sure to encourage questions about some of the stories as you uncover them. This game is a great conversation starter.

The winner is the student with the most points under their name at the end.